Tool Box

Game File Format Central

Guess the title says it all, eh? :)

Simplygon Review on GameDev

Another poly reduction app comes our way. Does anyone actually use these in production? I know I've been at places that have tried and for the most part, it was always better to do it by hand or resurface the model if need be - even for background geometry.

What determines good middleware?

An interesting discussion was happening at ChaosEngine regarding middleware - what general criteria do folks look at when evaluating whether a particular middleware meets their needs or not? Thoughts?

FX Composer 2.0 RC1

This one's been awhile in coming, but it seems to have finally made it out with some interesting features, one of which is Mental Mill, graph node editor for shaders.

Improved drag-drop implementation (CodeProject)

This is a demo application that shows how to implement a drag and drop solution that gives you more positioning control. As long as you move an object within its container, there is no need to perform a true drag and drop operation; you simply change its location. This application shows how to automatically switch between the two methods. To do some exact positioning you would like to see the outline of the object while moving it. This application also shows how to do this. It's also possible to move the object with the arrow keys. To align objects you most likely need some grid to snap against. This is also included in this application. To give this demo some more value the drag-drop object is also resizable via a corner grip. This is all done in Visual Studio 2005 and the 2.0 framework.

Lightsprint

Lightsprint is a new solution for realtime radiosity and global illumination available for PC and consoles.

GPU Caps Viewer

A handy little util for checking out caps on any gpu.

Omegame releases Omegame Menus Master

Omegame announced Menus Master v2.5, the most complete, flexible and user-friendly solution to create game user interface (UI) for any c++ platform.

Menus Master provides all the functionalities artists need to create any kind of sophisticated game user interfaces: 2D and 3D front-ends, in-game UIs and heads-up displays.

• No programming assistance needed:

- With Menus Master, artists can create up to 80% of your game UI and HUD, without any programming assistance.

- Programming assistance is only needed when the UI is integrated into the game, and if complex interactions between the game UI and the game must be established (i.e. to manage dynamic databases).

• No Creativity Constraints:

- Menus Master Studio supports any kind of resources needed to create AAA game UI: Texts, bitmaps, 3D objects, animations, videos, sounds and music.

- All parameters of these objects (position, size, motion, colours, alpha, etc.) can be easily modified and animated within Menus Master Studios.

- 2D and 3D are treated the same in Menus Master; Menus Master offers powerful tools to manage 3D and 2D.

- 3D meshes can be imported from any third party software with their own animations. Animations can also be created within Menus Master.

• Easy Localization:

- All texts created in Menus Master can have several language fields, one for each language, and these fields can be Unicode (Japanese, Korean, Chinese, etc.)

- UI project language can be changed at any time to check if the page layout conforms to wishes.

- All texts are saved in a *.CSV file. The linguistic team can work separately on this file (translate, correct, add languages …) at any time.

- When using Unicode fonts, Menus Master generates a bitmap file with only the characters used in the UI.

• Fully open and scalable:

- Menus Master has an open I/O architecture; all interactions between Menus Master and the platform are made through drivers.

- Menus Master is consequently totally compatible with any existing market’s platforms, present and next generation, as soon as technical specifications are known.

- Any standard or exotic peripherals (camera, microphone, magic wand ...) can also quickly be supported by Menus Master thanks to its drivers-based architecture.

- This open architecture also allows to use any homemade technology or third-party middleware with Menus Master.

- Omegame is establishing partnerships with middleware companies to make their solution work with Menus Master.

• Real time preview in real conditions (WYSIWYG):

- Menus Master allows a real time preview of the game UI, at any time.

- On a multi platforms project, any resources can be assigned to a specific platform. Users can quickly switch between the different versions to appraise them according to the platform constraints.

- Moreover, the drivers-based architecture of Menus Master also allows to use any homemade technology or 3rd party middleware within Menus Master Studio.

- You can consequently use in Menus Master Studio your own cutting -edge 3D engine, or the latest third-party sound middleware you need, etc ...

- So what you see on your screen is exactly what you will get in your game.

• Teamwork:

- Menus Master allows several artists to work on different parts of a UI at the same time.

- Any asset manager can also be integrated into Menus Master.

• Parallel authoring:

- Menus Master allows to create, from one UI, several others UIs for different platforms.

- Each UI can have its own dedicated resources and parameters (A next-gen version of the UI can have higher resolution textures and a higher display resolution for instance)

- Menus Master Data Generator is batchable with the game production pipeline. UI made with Menus Master Studio can consequently be smoothly integrated into the game.

• Programmer friendly:

- Menus Master Development Kit uses C++ namespace called ''MmDk'', in order to avoid any naming conflicts with the existing game's components.

- Menus Master avoids fragmentation memory problems; data in the memory is used where it is allocated; no additional memory allocation is needed. UI Data is released with one sole memory release.

- All external resource files keep their in-game format; they don’t have to be modified to be used by Menus Master.

- They are loaded according to the game engine’s protocols, allowing custom loading technologies (dynamic, streaming, etc.).

- Several UI data can be stored together in memory; they can be used at will, possibly at the same time.

- UI Data can be processed at will (compressed, encrypted, etc.).

- Menus Master Data Generator provides resource usage statistics, useful to optimize resources management.

Fonix Middleware Adds Voice Recognition for the Wii

Speech technology solutions and interface provider Fonix Speech has announced that it has joined Nintendo's Tools and Middleware Program for the Wii, giving developers access to Fonix’s VoiceIn Game Edition and Fonix VoiceIn Karaoke Edition voice recognition technologies.

A few good CodeProject articles

Here are a couple of CodeProject articles that are pretty relevant to tools.

Binary Search Tree in C#
Copy/Delete/Browse Files in C#
.NET Random Number Generators and Distributions

Icarus Studio releases middleware toolset

Looks like Icarus is ready to release its toolset for creating MMOs. It'd be interesting to get people's takes on the service that they're providing here, from tools to all their various services.

CrypticAR

Cryptic Studios has released their custom rigging solution for bipedal characters for 3DSMax. It's a fairly full-featured solution, supports ik/fk switching, squash and stretch, custom skins and a lot of other goodies.

EASTL

Paul Pedriana at EA Redwood Shores details out EA's modifications to STL, largely in regards to performance of the allocator and additions to the container.

Blade Interactive announces Infinite Worlds

Blade Interactive, creators of HydroEngine unveiled Infinite Worlds, a complete game development suite, including asset management, level editor tools, QA and data managment tools. They claim to do multi-user level editing - I'd love to see this in action.

FileCarver

From the site:

"FileCarver is a program for editing binary data files that follow an arbitrary format that you specify. FileCarver offers a completely new approach to binary file editing, when compared to the traditional use of a hex-editor. When using a hex-editor, you are forced to calculate the offset and the format of the data that you want to change, which, at times, can be extremely difficult. On the other hand, with FileCarver, you simply specify the format of the file prior to opening it, using an XML definition file, and you are automatically presented with a complete graphical user interface to edit the file."

Could be useful in level editors, depending on how you handle your data.